


Episode 201 "The Goal"

by Fibi94



Series: The Palace Season 2 [1]
Category: The Palace (UK TV)
Genre: F/M, What would have happened, s2 AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:15:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25799542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fibi94/pseuds/Fibi94
Summary: My version of what I imagined (and wanted) Season 2 of "The Palace" to be.
Relationships: King Richard IV/Abigail Thomas
Series: The Palace Season 2 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1871740
Comments: 7
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In the show there's a clear diversion from the real BRF, after spending way more time than it's really adviced looking into the BRF's tree I found where it might have happened.  
> So in this universe, Prince Albert-Victor, Duke of Clearance and older brother of (our) King George V never died, he actually survived long enough to marry Mary of Teck (Queen Mary was actually engaged to King George's older brother before his death). 
> 
> I may post the actual family tree at the end of the story.

She asks him to fight for her, her words ringing in his head strongly as he steps out on the balcony, they’re strong enough to push him to make a promise, mostly to himself, that by the next time he does so, probably for Trooping the Color, it will be with her by his side.

‘ _Unrealistic, childish promise’_ a voice strangely resembling his father’s said, he tries to push it down, he knows it’s unrealistic, but it’s still something he wants to strive for. Even if the whole world is against him. Even if he has to burn it all to the ground he guesses. He looks back to the last eight months of his life, he went from living a life of minimum responsibility to having the weight of the entire family on his shoulders. Age 24 he found himself the head of the family, a family he had no idea how to control, if he could ever do that. And then came Abigail, well not really came, she was always there, always getting him out of trouble, helping him out of messes he creates, but after his ascent it was almost as if he saw her for the first time. Truly saw her, not as just a member of his staff but as a person, as a friend, and eventually as a woman too. He now cringes, a lot, when he remembers how he used to treat her, he was to put it mildly a jerk, but he thanks his lucky stars that for once, _just once_ they smiled down on him and did not let her, or gave her the patience not to resign, he imagines, indirectly he has to also thank Anne Featherstone for offering 200.000 pounds for a book, but that’s not gonna happen anywhere else but his head really...

“ _Breathe, in and out, in and out. Richard, you have this” her voice was soft, her hands cupping his cheeks, nails lightly biting in the soft skin there, he closes his eyes, “You got through the coronation, it’s just a balcony appearance, just like trooping the color.” her voice steady, he doesn’t know why it happened but the moment he was supposed to leave the relative safety of his bedroom, the moment he faced the glittering crown, he broke so to speak. “I… I can’t… I can’t.” he assumes she leads him to the chair because he doesn’t remember walking on his own accord, she’s sitting on the coffee table in front of him “Of course you can.” fingers gently pressing on his shoulders, “Look at me, Richard, look at me.” he looks up, her blue eyes filled with worry, “You can do this, breathe.”_

When he walks back inside his mother tries to pull him towards the other way “Richard?” she asks her voice sounding more like a warning, “Start without me.” he says, there’s a look on Izzy’s eyes, he’s not able to decode it quite right but he doesn’t really care to linger back and ask right now. He walks fast to his apartments, “Is she?”

“Yes sir.”

“Hey” he hates how she jumped up when he walked in, he imagines etiquette is something not so easily forgotten or ignored, “Did you snoop around?” he jokes taking off the imperial state crown, “Yes I did, you will find you’re missing quite a number of underwear all to be sold off on ebay.”

He laughs, “I’m hurt.” he takes her hands in his, “I’ve decided something.” he says determined, a promise is nothing if not documented, if he tells her, then it’s going to be a joint effort. “What?” she asks amused, “Next time I am to appear on that balcony I’ll have you by my side. We’ll appear together.” she laughs, it’s not exactly the reaction he expected and he is a little hurt, “What?” he asks, “Richard, next balcony appearance is for Trooping the Color, in June. In eight months from now. You surely know that’s impossible-” he tries to protest but she stops him, “Even if we get permission from the government tomorrow, which we absolutely will not, we still don’t have enough time to plan a royal wedding, for a monarch in eight months. It’s humanly impossible Richard.” he opens his mouth, he wants to protest, but deep down he knows she is, once again, right. “How long does it take?” he asks, and now he really sounds about ten, “Well...” he sees Abi thinking about it, “I’d say about a year, minimum”

“A… a year?” he feels a little deflated he won’t lie, “But… but that means you’ll miss the state visit in October too!”

Abi laughs again, this time it seems to him even louder, “Oh, Richard, really?”

“Yes!” He now feels utterly deflated, “I will still be here, helping you through them every step of the way” she laughs again, he imagines at his expense, again, “Are… are you pouting?” she says, and he swears she is tearing up at this moment “I am not!” he says trying to sound as authoritative as he can but it only helps making her laugh harder, “Oh… oh my… oh dear” she says between gasps “You’re now puffing too! Oh...” In fact he is, just a little, but he won’t admit it, instead he leans down and presses his lips against her, both shutting her up, and maybe salvaging his ego a little, and stealing her breath, leaving her both a little stunned and out of breath as well.

“Now that…” she says tapping his uniform right below his medals, which if he’s honest he’s still not quite sure how he got but is not going to admit that in a million years if he has anything to say about it, “That’s a solid way to shut me up.”

A soft knock on the door burst the bubble they are in, Richard sighs, for a moment debating to pull back or not before he throws caution to the wind and doesn’t, instead pulls Abi closer “He knocks now?” Abi asks nodding to the door behind which David stands waiting for him to call, “Yeah, improvements see?” she goes to pull away but his hand tightens around her waist, “David, come in!”

David opens the door walking inside “Sir, your sister Princess Isabelle is here for you.”

Richard frowns, “Izzy?” he mutters, “Let her in.” Abi goes to pull away but he keeps his arm firmly around her waist, “Richard let me go!” she says softly, “If we’re going to give it a go then we’re not hiding from my family.”

Izzy walks in but stops almost dead in her tracks when she sees him and Abi so close to each other, “Oh” she says, Richard hates how her face lights up, almost like she finally found the answer to a difficult, bothersome, question, “Now that makes sense.” Richard rolls his eyes, “What do you want?” he asks, his voice coming out just a little too strong for his liking, he can almost feel, Abi’s eyes trying to burn a whole on the side of his head and tries his best to ignore it. “Yeesh brother!” Izzy jokes, “I came to tell you that mother dearest is getting restless!” she says rolling her eyes, quite dramatically when she mentions their mother, he imagines her bitterness over forcing her to be committed to a clinic for something she doesn’t feel like it’s a problem does not recede overnight. He makes a note to talk about it with his little sister, “Of course she is.” he says under his breath before a delightful and maybe slightly insane idea pops into his head, “Well dear” he says turning to Abi who is slightly surprised and confused he’s talking to her, “We have to go to dinner before my mother drags us through the palace.” he sees her eyes widening and swears he wants to laugh, and he probably would if he was sure it would not earn him a black eye or something, Abi is after all absolutely frightening from times to times, “With all due respect, you’ve lost your goddamn mind!” she says, “No, I have not! I am working towards the goal we set.”

“No, no, no, you set a quite unrealistic goal and you’re on your way to cock it all up.”

“No, **we** decided we wanted to move forward and have an actual relationship and yes eventually do get the whole happily ever after or whatever, and that does include telling my family.”

“Rubbing it in on Eleanor is only part of it.” Izzy, says a mischievous smirk on her face, “Maybe a little”

“Listen, Abigail, this is a family, slash close staff, slash close friends dinner, you’re safe, I mean, after all you are still Rich’s APS.” Richard is a little taken aback by Izzy’s words, she is right of course, but he still didn’t expect it. “Thank you Izzy!”

“Thank you, your majesty.” she says, but her tone makes Richard wish she didn’t…

XXXX

Abigail’s heart was on her throat the whole dinner, Richard insisted, quite childish in her opinion, she sits next to him, something that not only drew attention she did not want to her, but also rose some eyebrows, especially from the Queen Mother, Queen Charlotte and Richard’s aunt Princess Alice whom she could swear almost was trying to set her on fire with her looks. she’s thankful he didn’t blunder anything during the dinner to be honest, even though she did enjoy his hand reaching for hers underneath the table when he could tell she was getting just about ready to bolt out of there. And then was Eleanor, who, by the looks of it, was just about ready to stab both her and Richard with a butter knife if she had to. She needs to ask Richard what he did about her scheming, she knows Simon was fired, news do travel fast in their circles, but Eleanor should also face some sort of punishment for what she did.

“Anyone asks, I’m asleep, dead to the world got it?” Richard says to David when they reach the door to his apartments, “Yes sir” Abigail decides she doesn’t like David’s smirk but she doesn’t say anything, she just throws him a look which she hopes says it all and if the way he retreats the smile falls from his lips is an indication then she succeeded in her goal. No sooner than Abigail closes the door to the room behind them, Richard nearly collapses on the couch, “I hate my bloody family.” he says under his breath, barely above a whisper but she could hear him loud and clear, “They’re colorful” she says biting the inside of her cheek, “Colorful!” Richard says under his breath, “Aunt Alice is a drunk old fool who thinks it’s OK to marry your cousin, Uncle David’sex-wife has cheated on him with over hundred men and women in London alone before the divorce a serial alcoholic and drug addict, lost everything when his ‘business’ went south, Aunt Margaret’s first fiance left her for an 18 year old girl he met two weeks prior, and second drank himself to death to get away from her after three years of marriage, the only borderline normal ones are Uncle Philip and Aunt Liz, probably because by the time they were born they were so low in the line of succession they were practically irrelevant.”

She feels bad laughing but she can’t help it really, “Well we all have interesting families.” He sits up leaning on his elbow a smirk forming again on his lips, “How about you tell me about yours then?”

Abi chuckles, “Mine.” she looks at him, green eyes focusing on her, curiosity filling them, “Well it’s a normal one, mum used to be a teacher, dad farmer, two siblings growing up. My sister, she’s named Rebecca, she’s married to a Scottish banker moved to Edinburgh, my brother, Ethan was three years older than me, he died when I was eighteen, plane crash.” she takes a deep breath remembering getting the news, “Your brother died?” he asks, she didn’t realize he sat up or that his hand was reaching for her shoulder, “I had no idea, I can’t imagine how you must have felt, if anything happened to George, or Izzy, hell even Ellie, I’d be devastated.” Abi smiles and moves to sit next to him on the couch, his arm wrapping around her shoulders pulling her closer to him, she feels almost drawn to lay her head on his shoulder, and it takes her a couple minutes to realize she is more than allowed to do so now. “It never goes away, you just learn to live with it.” she says.

“What about your father?”

“Oh well, he’s a character.” Abi sits up, still pressed much closer to Richard than it would have been advised or allowed really but she finds herself caring less and less by each passing minute really. It was true after all, Richard James William Edward Windsor is nothing but trouble, and never had been anything but. “Tell me about him.”

“I told you he’s a farmer, I grew up in a farm really, a few minutes outside ofDwyran, right across Caernarfon Castle really. My father still lives there actually.”

“Why did I not asked you to marry me when you started working for me?”

“I believe you were too busy shagging a playboy bunny.”

XXXX

He plays with his cuff again, it fits perfectly of course but he’s nervous and he hates banquettes. “Hey bro, why were you all holed up earlier? What were you doing?” George asks him, a glass of champagne, empty, in his hand, “Or should I ask who were you doing?” Richard shakes his head, he loves his brother, he truly loves him but some times, more often recently, he finds himself just wanting to talk to him, seriously, and it’s almost too hard to get George there. “Don’t you ever feel the need to grow up?” Richard asks, he can see his question takes George by surprise, “What do you mean mate?” He shakes his head again “Forget about it, I am still tired, didn’t sleep well.” he lies and walks inside, mingling with people, dignitaries from all over the world really. The King and Queen of Norway are the first he talks to, the King being some distant cousin god knows how many times removed, he nods and smiles and listens as they drone on and on about their son and his wife, and their daughter and their grand kids, he’s sure somewhere in there they even threw in an invite to visit them but he couldn't for the life of him remember. “I still don’t know how we pulled it off, if I’m honest.” he hears a familiar voice, female, he tries to move closer discreetly to listen in on the conversation, he thinks it’s the crown princess of Sweden talking “So where is the future groom now?” asks another woman, Spanish, she must be Spanish, probably the Princess of Asturias as she sounds too young to be the Queen, “Well back home of course.”

“When is the wedding?” a man asks this time, now he’s sure he knows that voice, this is for sure the Prince of Asturias, so the woman must be his wife, he breaks his head trying to remember her name but he absolutely can’t remember it, even though he attended their wedding back in 2004, positively drunk out of his mind.

“Your Majesty!” the first woman says loudly enough to scare him he turns around trying to put a big smile on his lips, trying with all his might to look as if he didn’t spend the last five minutes eavesdropping on them, “Victoria, lovely to see you!”

XXXX

“Is she inside David?”

“She who, your royal highness?”

“Don’t play dumb David, it’s not a good look.”

The glass she was holding drops from her hand crashing on the thick carpet beneath her bare feet when the door opens forcefully, “Your royal highness” she curtsy to Izzy who looks back absolutely disgusted by it, “Don’t do that, I was just starting to like you!” she says dropping the black clothes back she was holding on the back of the couch, “Listen my brother is gulping like a fish out of water, he was eavesdropping on the Crown Princess of Sweden, talking to the Prince and Princess of Asturias, so doll up before tomorrow’s Sun talks about ‘Creepy Dicky’ please” she says. Abi is confused, she doesn’t have any clue why would Richard eavesdrop on anyone, much less on the future Queen of Sweden and the future King and Queen of Spain.

“I don’t understand why would he-”

“Are you seriously playing hard to get now?” Izzy puts her hands on her waist, at that moment she can see both the late King James and Richard in her stance, “Fine, fine. I’ll get dressed!”

“Good, I took the liberty of having this dress bought for you.”

“Thank you, your highness.”

“For christ’s sake call me Izzy woman!”

Abi takes the black bag, it ends up being much heavier than she imagined, and walks into Richard’s bedroom, this seems like a horrible idea, that will majestically blow up on their faces, but she goes along with it, she lays the bag on the bed and opens the zipper…

XXXX

“Iain, a moment please?” Richard says, he’s itching to have Abigail join them, but he feels he might just have pushed his luck too much today, “Of course sir.” the two of them walk to the side as far away from prying eyes as they could. “Is there a problem sir?”

“No, not a problem, not yet anyway.” Richard is looking around, he realizes then, sadly almost that Iain is the first person he’s intentionally telling of his relationship with Abi and of their endgame as well, it is almost depressing if he’s honest.

“I don’t know if you know but Abigail and I are in… a relationship” he says lowering his voice, he expects the full Sir Iain patented tear down but instead he gets nothing but silence and a stern look, “That much I gathered sir, is it serious?” Richard exhales, “I want it to be”

“Does she?”

“ _I want at least four kids!” Richard says leaning back on the headboard, Abi burst laughing, burying her face in his shoulder, “You know I could have you arrested!”_

“ _Ease there King Henry!”_

“ _I mean it, I want at least four kids!” she looks up, one hand on his chest, the other propping her up “You thought about it?” she asks him, a soft smile forming, “Of course, they’ll be both very smart and very beautiful.”_

“ _Very Welsh too!”_

“ _Well one of them is going to be the Prince of Wales!”_

“She does.” he says smiling. Ian is silent studying him for a moment, “I have never seen you this happy your majesty.” he says finally, gently smiling, “There’s a lot of things we have to work on, mostly on working on Abigail’s image and starting presenting her as the future consort-”

“Ahead of you there old man!” Izzy says butting in on their conversation, “What do you mean, your highness?”

“Look!”

Richard turns so fast he swears he heard his neck cracking a little, there she was, in a deep red velvet gown, a long scarf flowing from her dress, gracefully draped over her shoulders, “I hope that’s consort-y enough for you!” she says smirking, Richard looks at his little sister shocked, “You… how?”

“Oh for crying out loud Rich! I saw you two in your room! I’m not stupid, no matter what mother dearest wants people to believe!”

“I’ll keep that in mind, I can’t thank you enough Iz.” he says pulling his sister to a tight hug, “Yeah, yeah, keep that in mind will you? Beat it now!”

“Your Majesty!”

“You look stunning.”

“Your sister has a great eye for fashion.”

“She does” he says chuckling “You know I want to introduce you to Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, she has quite the tale to tell us!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's election day people are worried so here, new chapter.

When he opens his eyes it’s way earlier than he thought, the light was barely poking through the heavy curtains and both the palace and the city outside of it were at their quietest. Never actually quiet, with a constant buzzing noise always being in the background. He feels her moving from his left, her red hair spread on the pillow, eyes closed, peaceful. It hits him stronger than he expected but this was the sight he wanted to see for the rest of his life if it was possible.

“Stop starring and go back to sleep, you miserable sod.” she says head buried into the pillow before she turns to face him. Her eyes clouded from sleep, smile forming on her lips “You go back to sleep.” he leans down to place a small kiss on her lips, “What time is it?”

“About 5.30am” she groans and turns the other way, her back turned to him “I have most of the day to myself today you knew that?” he whispers as he wraps his arms around her front, pulling her naked body against his. “We still have things to work out, Richard, this isn’t something we should just wing it.” he closes his eyes and buries his face in her hair, he knows they have to actually make a plan about what they know, he’s not stupid enough to believe that six months in a remote island will be enough to change Eleanor, at least not enough for her not to be a threat to him, no if anything she will probably become even more vicious and with all the ‘dirt’ she has on both him and Abi she could pose a potential big threat. And then of course there was Major Brooks, he’s been in his place and he knows a man’s hurt ego could be as dangerous as Eleanor’s venom, “I know we have to, I do, but I don’t want to talk about Eleanor or Simon Brooks or Anne Featherstone today. Not right now at least.” she turns a little around, just enough so he can see her face, her left hand reaches over and cups his face, the warmth from her hand warming him up. “Not now. But later”

“Later. I promise”

XXXX

They managed to spend most of the day in bed or in the sitting area next door, other than Richard leaving for an hour or so to host a small reception to bid farewell to the members of the foreign royal families visiting for the coronation, more promises of future visits and warm smiles, all perfectly made up for the palace photographers. Abigail in the corner, carefully away from all eyes, trying to blend in with the environment almost, she kept close to Sir Iain and Jonty for most of the reception, and thankfully neither pelted her with so many questions to make her look for the exit. Not much at least, there were still looks, mostly from Queen Charlotte now that Richard’s extended family left Buckingham Palace for their respective homes in Kensington Palace and St. James’ and if she’s honest she hopes it’s a good long while before she sees any of them ever again, even the more normal ones.

“Abigail may I have a moment.” Iain says at some point, it was a good half hour into the reception and Richard was currently talking, rather animated, with the Queen of Denmark, “Sure” she says and follows him outside of the white drawing room and into a more secluded corridor.

“Is there something wrong?” she asks, she doesn’t know how much Iain knows, she imagines he knows some, “I want you to know that I am in full support of the relationship, I may not have shown it all the time but I do like you Abigail.” his words almost knock the air out of her lungs, “Oh.” she says stunned, “I...”

He raises his hand “I don’t want you to tell me anything, I am just going to ask you what I asked his majesty yesterday when he told me, is it serious for you?”

She remembers back to their conversation earlier today…

_“Are you sure you want all this?” he asks her, she knows what he’s trying to do, he’s trying to give her an excuse, a something, but his hands tell her a different story, he may be trying to give her an out but his arms just pull her closer tighter, they still didn't get up from bed, neither of them bothered with clothes, the robes they put on for the sake of modesty when David walked in with breakfast got discarded as soon as the door closed behind the man. “I want you Richard, whole package right?” he chuckles she can see him closing his eyes tightly, “You will have to make public everything you are, Be nothing more than a plastic doll, designed to stand there embodying a perfectly male created bland wife whose job is more or less to pretty the King_ _up_ _and then get pregnant, producing an heir and a spare. Nothing will be our own, they won’t let us.” she sees the pain, the ever bubbling anger underneath, “Will I have you?” she asks him, her words slow, making sure she punctuates them all carefully. “Of course.” he says, finally looking down, actually looking at her, his eyes meeting hers, “Then I’ll be fine. I’m used to being underestimated. And I am not planning on being just a plastic doll, just a perfect picture standing there. If I have, like you say, to make public everything I am then I will take some things for myself too, if you promise me to be by my side as well.” he looks at her, there’s something in his eyes, she remembers seeing it once before, back when because of his ill-fated relationship with Miranda Hill he nearly brought down the Prime Minister, another thorn on their side, back then she thought it was madness, that he had finally snapped and the years of alcohol abuse finally managed and did him in. but now, now she can see it’s something different, she can’t really name it but she can absolutely identify it, recognize it, ambition and hope mixed in._

_“We’ll be one hell of a team.” he says pulling her back closer. Abi smiles as she leans against his shoulder, “Hell of a team indeed” she murmurs._

“It is Iain, it is.” Iain smiles and nods, his face quickly dropping and a serious professional look takes over. “Jonty and I will need to know all about your background, every ex that might be out for revenge, every dirty little skeleton in the closet that might come out in the middle of the night, every little thing, even those His Majesty knows nothing about, last thing we need is another Queen Charlotte’s affair to strike us with the future consort.”

“There’s nothing Richard doesn’t know.” she says, thankful that this is finally true. It was painful but they finally managed to let the floodgates open earlier, she told him all about the book, everything Simon had told her in detail about his and Eleanor’s schemes, she told him of the even more ill-fated relationship she had with Simon, opened up and let him in on some of her most deeply embarrassing moments, and in return he did too. The crippling depression, that gripped him a few weeks after his father’s death, the panic attacks that have plagued him ever since he was 16, the first time he stopped being Prince Richard but became HRH The Prince of Wales, by a stroke of his father’s pen, the moment he realized that he would have to deal with things like handling one of the biggest portfolios in the country in the Duchy of Cornwall, the moment he realized that this “top job” that took his parents away when he needed them the most would surely, eventually, fall on him, on his shoulders.

She looks up at Iain who’s more or less studying her, “There are no secrets between Richard and I. And I am more than willing to let you and Jonty know.”

“Good”

XXXX

“I don’t know how I will be able to sleep without you by my side again.” Richard says with a chuckle as they were lying in his bed for the second night in a row. She laughs, burying her face in the pillow, “Don’t kings and queens sleep in different beds?” she says through residual laughs. “Well kings and queens of past could barely stand one another, maybe that played some role.” He says, a large smirk on his lips.

Richard ends up falling asleep faster than her, so Abigail finds herself, once more if she’s honest, just watching him sleep. Left arm thrown over his head, mouth slightly open, the lines between his brows almost completely gone when asleep. She watched him grow right before her eyes from this carefree playboy prince to a self-assured and caring king and she imagines she grew with him. They both grew simultaneously in a way, her letting go of her anger at him and probably the institution that made him the way he used to be, having a better look in what life behind the palace walls really looks like, growing and letting go of her own anger and grief too.

Tomorrow will be a new day, she knows she will have to open up to Jonty and Iain about things that happened in the last couple years that she is not really proud of, and some are extremely painful to revisit but it’s worth it. She has had her doubts about it but now she is more certain than before, it is worth it. That absolutely insane man next to her is worth it.

At the very least life will never be boring…


End file.
